1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a card edge connector, and particularly to a card edge connector having a conductive wire for electrically interconnecting power terminals thereof with a printed circuit board.
2. Description of Related Art
An electrical connector, which establishes electrical connection between a daughter card and a mother board, is commonly called a xe2x80x9ccard edgexe2x80x9d connector. The card edge connector includes an elongated housing defining a central slot therein for receiving the daughter card. Conventional card edge connectors are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,263,870, 5,411,408 and 6,102,744, and page 22 of xe2x80x9cConnector Specifierxe2x80x9d published in January 2001 by PennWell Corp. U.S. Pat. No. 5,411,408 discloses a card edge connector having terminals with spring contact portions for engaging a card edge. U.S. Pat. No. 6,102,744 provides an electrical connector with improved contacts for preventing stubbing of the contacts upon card insertion. The contacts of the connectors mentioned above are amounted on a mother board for transmitting signals and power. A complicated circuitry are needed to be arranged on the mother board for electrically connecting tails of the contacts. Such an arrangement takes up too much space of the mother board and thus little space is left for other uses. Such an arrangement also increases the cost of the mother board. U.S. Pat. No. 5,263,870 discloses a card edge connector which includes a dielectric housing defining a central slot therein, a ground plane received in the housing having a plurality of leads for connection with circuits on a mother board, and a plurality of signal terminals and ground terminals mounted to the mother board. The ground terminals contact the ground plate for establishing a grounding path with the mother board. However, the mother board still needs a complicated circuitry for connecting power terminals of the connector.
Hence, an improved card edge connector is desired to simplify the design and manufacture of the mother board.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a card edge connector having an integral wire for electrically interconnecting power terminals thereof, whereby a circuitry of a printed circuit board for supplying power to the card edge connector can be simplified.
A card edge connector mounted on a printed circuit board in accordance with the present invention comprises an elongated dielectric housing having a card-receiving face, a plurality of terminals, a plurality of board locks, and at least one wire. An elongated central slot is defined in the card-receiving face generally along a longitudinal axis of the housing for receiving a card edge therein. The terminals comprise a plurality of signal terminals and power terminals. The signal and power terminals are received in the housing in a selected sequence for electrically connecting with contact pads on the card edge. The at least one wire is received in the housing and interconnects the power terminals. The at least one wire contacts the board locks which are connected with traces on the printed circuit board, thereby connecting the power terminals with the traces on the printed circuit board.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.